Waltzing Matilda
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Waltzing Matilda is usually sung in informal settings, but it was played with a 90 piece orchestra and the 100 voice Melbourne Chorale at the 2005 Classical Spectacular |
"Waltzing Matilda" is
Australia's most widely known
song and one that has been popularly suggested as a potential
national anthem many times. The song is well-known and strongly associated with Australia outside the country as well, to the point where it has become a
metonym. The Matildas, the
Australia women's national football (soccer) team, were named after this song.
The lyrics to the song were written in
1895 by the poet and nationalist
Banjo Paterson, who originally set them to a slightly different tune. Extensive folklore surrounds the song and the process of its creation, to the extent that the song has its own museum, the
Waltzing Matilda Centre of
Winton, Queensland.
There have long been persistent calls for the establishment of
Waltzing Matilda as the national anthem over the current national anthem, "
Advance Australia Fair". The song is certainly easily recognisable and easily sung, but its lyrics, relating the story of a
swagman who steals a sheep and drowns himself when law enforcement arrives, render it unlikely to ever gain acceptance in official circles. Many Australians, however, continue to regard it with great favour and sentimentality. Some have suggested using the same tune but with different lyrics, but supporters argue the lyrics contribute substantially to the song's character.
It enjoyed a brief period of official recognition as the Australian
national song (coexisting with "
Advance Australia Fair" as the National Anthem). It was used at the
Montreal Olympic Games in
1976, and, as a response to the New Zealand
All Blacks haka, it has gained popularity as a sporting anthem for the Australian Rugby Union Team. It is also performed, along with
Advance Australia Fair, at the annual
AFL Grand Final. As of 2006 it has no official status, but it continues to be used unofficially (and sometimes in error) in many contexts.
It was also performed at the closing ceremony of the
2000 Olympic Games in
Sydney by
Slim Dusty as well as at the opening ceremony of the
Commonwealth Games in
Brisbane in
1982 by
Rolf Harris.
"Waltzing Matilda" has been recorded by many Australian musicians and singers, including by
The Seekers (with
Athol Guy,
Bruce Woodley,
Keith Potger and
Judith Durham), as well as
Tenor Australis,
Thomas Edmonds and
Rolf Harris. Bands from other nations, including Ireland's Irish Rovers and the Red Army Chior, have also recorded the song.
Once a jolly swagman camped by a billabong,
Under the shade of a coolibah tree,
And he sang as he watched and waited 'til his billy boiled
"Who'll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me?"
Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda
Who'll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me
And he sang as he watched and waited 'til his billy boiled,
"Who'll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me?"
Along came a jumbuck to drink at the billabong,
Up jumped the swagman and grabbed him with glee,
And he sang as he stowed that jumbuck in his tucker bag,
"You'll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me".
Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda
Who'll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me
And he sang as he stowed that jumbuck in his tucker bag,
"You'll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me?".
Up rode the squatter, mounted on his thoroughbred,
Down came the troopers, one, two, three,
"Whose is that jumbuck you've got in your tucker bag?"
"You'll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me".
Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda
Who'll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me
"Whose is that jumbuck you've got in your tucker bag?",
"You'll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me?".
Up jumped the swagman, leapt into the billabong,
"You'll never catch me alive," said he,
And his ghost may be heard as you pass by the billabong,
"Who'll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me".
Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda
Who'll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me
And his ghost may be heard as you pass by the billabong,
"Who'll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me?"
The words unfamiliar to non-Australians are:
;
swagman : the Australian equivalent of a
hobo; a swagman is a romanticised figure who travelled the country looking for work, usually sporting a hat hung with
cork to ward off flies. The swagman's "
swag" was his bundle of belongings.
waltzing : derived from the German term auf der Walz, which means to travel while working as a craftsman and learn new techniques from other masters before returning home after three years and one day, a custom which is still in use today among carpenters.; Matilda : a romantic term for a swagman's bundle. See below, "Waltzing Matilda."
Waltzing Matilda : from the above terms, "to waltz Matilda" is to travel with a swag, that is, with all one's belongings on one's back wrapped in a blanket or cloth. The exact origins of the term "Matilda" are disputed; one fanciful derivation states that when swagmen met each other at their gatherings, there were rarely women to dance with. Nonetheless, they enjoyed a dance, and so they danced with their swags, which was given a woman's name. However, this appears to be influenced by the word "waltz", hence the introduction of dancing. It seems more likely that, as a swagman's only companion, the swag came to be personified as a woman.;
billabong : a stagnant pool found along the side of a river where eddies and directional changes of the water keep it from moving.
coolibah tree : a kind of eucalyptus which grows near billabongs.; jumbuck : a sheep. A "jombok" is a large, fluffy cloud that drifts across inland Australia. The
Indigenous Australians, when they saw sheep for the first time, were reminded of jomboks and called them a similar word. An alternative explanation is that it is an Aboriginally pronounced "jump up."
billy : a can for boiling water in, usu. 2-3 pints.; tucker bag : a bag for carrying food ("
tucker") in.
troopers : policemen.;
squatter : Australian squatters started as early farmers who raised livestock on land which they did not legally have the right to use, but in many cases later gained legal possession of it and became wealthy thanks to their large land holdings.
Variations
Other current variations include the third line of the chorus constantly saying "And he sang as he sat and waited by the billabong" or "And he sang as he watched and waited 'til his billy boiled".
The lyrics of Banjo Paterson's original version differ slightly from the ones generally known today.
The first verse originally ran like this:
Verse 1:
Oh, there once was a swagman camped in the billabongs,
Under the shade of a coolibah tree,
And he sang as he looked at the old billy boiling,
Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me?
Chorus:
Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda my darling,
Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me?
Waltzing Matilda and leading a waterbag,
Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me?
Verse 2:
Up came the jumbuck to drink at the waterhole,
Up jumped the swagman and grabbed him in glee,
And he sang as he put him away in th tucker-bag,
"You'll come a-waltzing matilda with me."
Chorus
Verse 3:
Up came the squatter a-riding his thoroughbred,
Up came policemen one two and three.
Who's is the jumbuck you've got in the tucker-bag?
You'll come a-waltzing matilda with we.
Chorus
Verse 4:
Up sprang the swagman and jumped in the waterhole,
Drowning himself by the Coolibah tree.
And his voice can be heard as it sings in the billabongs,
"Who'll come a-waltzing matilda with me."
Chorus
An even earlier version used the term "A-roving Australia" rather than "waltzing matilda". However, he was talked out of using this. A parody can be found
here.
Writing of the song
The song was written in 1895 by
Banjo Paterson, a famous Australian poet, and the music written (or possibly adapted) by Christina MacPherson. Banjo Paterson wrote the piece while staying at the Dagworth Homestead, a bush station in
Queensland. While he was there his hosts played him a traditional Celtic folktune called the Craigeelee, and Paterson decided that it would be a good piece to set lyrics to, producing the song during the rest of his stay.
The tune is most probably based on the Scottish song "Thou Bonnie Wood of Craigielea" which
Christina MacPherson heard played by a band at the
Warrnambool steeplechase.
Robert Tannahill wrote the words in
1805 and
James Barr composed the music in
1818. In
1893 it was arranged for
brass band by
Thomas Bulch. The tune again was possibly based on the old melody of "Go to the Devil and Shake Yourself" composed by
John Field (1782-1837) some time before
1812. It's sometimes also called: "When Sick is it Tea you want?" (London 1798) or "The Penniless Traveller" (O'Neill's 1850 collection).
There is also speculation about the relationship it bears to "The Bold Fusilier", a song dated by some back to the eighteenth century.
"Waltzing Matilda" is probably based on the following story:
In September
1894, on a station called Dagworth (north of Winton), some shearers were in a strike that turned violent. The strikers fired off their rifles and pistols in the air and then set fire to the woolshed at the Dagworth Homestead, killing dozens of sheep.
The owner of Dagworth Homestead and three policemen gave chase to a man named
Samuel Hoffmeister - also called Samuel "French(y)" Hoffmeister. Rather than be captured, Hoffmeister shot and killed himself at the
Combo Waterhole.
Bob Macpherson (the brother of Christina) and Banjo are said to have taken rides together at Dagworth. Here they may have passed the
Combo Waterhole, where Bob may have told this story to Banjo.
The song itself was first performed on
6 April 1895 at the North Gregory Hotel in
Winton, Queensland. The occasion was a banquet for the
Premier of Queensland. It became an instant success.
Ownership
In 1903 it was picked up by the Billy Tea company for use as an advertising jingle, making it nationally famous. A third variation on the song, with a slightly different chorus, was published in
1907. Paterson sold the rights to Waltzing Matilda and "some other pieces" to
Angus and Robertson Publishers for "five quid" (a "quid" is Australian slang for a pound, the then unit of currency).
The song was falsely copyrighted by an American publisher in
1941 as an original composition. However, no copyright applies in Australia.
Covers and derivative works
The song has been covered by a number of Australian artists over the years, notably
Lazy Harry. In 1958,
Bill Haley and His Comets recorded a version with new lyrics entitled "Rockin' Matilda" (Haley's version is about a beautiful Australian girl named Matilda).
The score of the 1959 film
On the Beach, written by
Ernest Gold is based heavily on motifs from "Waltzing Matilda". The film, about the end of the world in a nuclear holocaust, is set in Australia and director
Stanley Kramer was insistent on the "Waltzing Matilda" motif. The song itself is heard in the last minutes of
On the Beach.
A derivative work,
And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda, was created by
Eric Bogle in
1972, and performed most popularly by
The Pogues on the album
Rum Sodomy & the Lash. The song graphically documents the Australian experience at the
Battle of Gallipoli and
ANZAC Day remembrance since, from the point of view of a soldier who loses both legs in the fighting. The song incorporates the melody and a few lines of the "Waltzing Matilda's" lyrics at its conclusion.
The American singer
Tom Waits combined "Waltzing Matilda" with original material in "Tom Traubert's Blues (Four Sheets to the Wind in Copenhagen)", the first track of his
1976 album
Small Change.
Kylie Minogue, an Australian pop star, sang "Waltzing Matilda" at the 2000
Paralympic Games.
In 2003 the
Scared Weird Little Guys released "Cleanin' Out My Tuckerbag", an interpretation of the song in the vein of
Eminem's "Cleanin' Out My Closet".
In the story "The Mountain Movers" by Australian
Science Fiction writer
A. Bertram Chandler, the song gets new words in the mouth of future Australian space adventurers, with the first stanza running:
"When the jolly Jumbuk lifted from Port Woomera/ Out and away for Altair Three/ Glad were we all to kiss the tired old Earth goodbye/ Who'll come a-sailing in Jumbuk with me?"
"Waltzing Matilda" is the official march of the (US) First Marine Division, commemorating the time the unit spent in Australia during the Second World War.
*
And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda* http://www.anu.edu.au/people/Roger.Clarke/WM/ Excellent history page, lots of Paterson and Australian bits.
*
Who'll come a Waltzing Matilda with me? online exhibition from the National Library of Australia
*
Papers of Christina McPherson relating to the song "Waltzing Matilda" digitised and held by the National Library of Australia
* http://www.standingstones.com/waltzing.html
*
On the Beach and "Waltzing Matilda" *
Waltzing Matilda within MusicAustralia - includes material in a wide variety of formats from
Australian libraries via the Australian National Bibliographic Database
